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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29570280">Staying Close</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontrollthedice/pseuds/dontrollthedice'>dontrollthedice</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hermitcraft RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>5+1 Things, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hermitcraft-verse, M/M, Oblivious, Pining</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 22:42:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,555</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29570280</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontrollthedice/pseuds/dontrollthedice</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Beef's oblivious to the meaning behind Etho's actions + one time he isn't.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Etho/Daniel M. | VintageBeef</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>126</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Staying Close</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>just some comfort fic writing</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>1.</b>
</p><p>
  <span>The start of a new season was always chaotic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why do I always have to do it? Geez,” Xisuma grumbled. He sighed when Doc and a couple others piped up to egg him on, though he couldn’t hide his smile from Beef or any of the other hermits. “Okay, okay, I’ll do a short thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other hermits fell silent, waiting for his introduction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello, everyone, and welcome to Hermitcraft Season Seven. Go!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wait, what? That was it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After the initial shock, confusion and panic set in. Everyone had been allowed to study the geography for a while prior to this. Beef knew where he wanted to go, but where was that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef toed the shoreline of the island they had spawned on before stopping where it felt right. It was this way, right? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He dove into the water without a second thought. The anticipation of cold waters was always worse than the actual waters themselves, after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Around him, a few of the other hermits had already dove into the waters and had set out on their new journey. Groups of people were still clustered on the spawn island, growing more and more distant as he swam away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Good. The farther he got, the better.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A couple minutes later, the sounds of the other hermits had already faded around him. He had stopped on another small piece of land to grab a stick from a bush (first stick of the season obtained? He was way ahead of the others!) before returning to the water. All he could hear was distant yelling, the waves roaring, and the sound of him pushing water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And something else. Or someone else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef turned, only to see a flicker of white retreat into the depths and two unwanted guests behind that figure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, of course. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Etho, you’re being followed,” Beef said, diving to Etho’s side. That had just been his first instinct. The two unwanted guests (drowned, were they called?) set their sights on him and swam forward. At least he didn’t have to swim all the way towards them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Etho popped his head out of the water, then turned around, blinking. “Oh, am I?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a pause, presumably Etho looking around. “Oh, yes, I am.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You got a couple friends right here.” Beef smacked one in the face with a stick, and he smiled upon hearing Etho chuckle in the background.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Not even a second passed before Joe messaged him via communicator asking where he and Etho were thinking of settling. Beef had raised an eyebrow and typed back his own plans. What a weird question.)</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <b>2.</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef knew Etho was nearby the instant he got a fishing hook to the face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What're you doing?" Beef said, swatting the hook away and walking forward as Etho laughed. "Tryna fish me, boy? You tryna</span>
  <em>
    <span> fish me, boy?"</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Etho pulled his fishing line back once Beef had made it to his side, giving Beef a chance to look him over for the first time since they’d gotten separated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The shine on his armor hadn't been a trick of the light after all. The iron armor he wore (plus the diamond boots—can't miss that obvious flex) was all enchanted, as well as the fishing rod he held. Distantly, Beef remembered their communicator announcing Etho getting ahold of an enchantment table, but it still didn't feel fair compared to his own humbler armor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yo, nice place," Etho said, his gaze flickering from unfinished building to unfinished building. It sounded like sarcasm, but given his neutral expression, Beef couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef decided to give his friend the benefit of the doubt. "Thanks. Whatcha doing?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Looking for a home."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh… then that implied Etho didn't have a home. Did he need a home? Beef wouldn't really say he had a home right now, but give him a couple weeks and he could—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Is this near where you were going to set up?" Etho asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All of Beef's thoughts came crashing to a halt. He probably shouldn't get too ahead of himself. "This is the exact spot."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh, okay. So that jungle near here is free?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The jungle? He hadn't heard anything about a hermit settling in the jungle, but he also hadn't </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> heard about a hermit settling in the jungle…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Not sure," Beef said. "You'll have to check with the others."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then something shifted in Etho's gaze, and he darted his gaze to the side. This was usually a scary moment: whenever Etho thought this deeply about something, Beef had learned through their years of friendship that nothing good came out of it. But now, Beef couldn’t help but feel he was thinking of something more sincere than a prank.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Etho said eventually. “Thanks.” And with that, he walked back into the same forest he had emerged from.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, that was classic Etho, he supposed. Appearing and disappearing at will.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Later, he relayed the story to Wels to inform them of their new neighbor, only for Wels to laugh and ask what Etho was thinking, wanting to be close to Beef. Beef didn’t quite get it, but he laughed along anyway.)</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <b>3.</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Hangouts with Etho were far from new, but Etho asking to meet at Beef's music store was strange. If Beef hadn't spent the whole day there, he would've thought Etho had trapped the whole place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he hadn't. And here they were now, standing in the shop after a stilted discussion about Etho's free glass service and the new record cover addition to Beef's shop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"So, what's up?" Beef asked, placing a hand on the piano solely because he didn't quite know where to position his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh, yeah," Etho said. He looked around the store. "So, you know, your music store has been bippity boppiting, right?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The humor he found in that particular word choice was overridden upon remembering the lack of sales at the store. Beef peeked into one chest—no sales. He peeked into the other—none. Zilch. Nada.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yeah, it's been doing great," is what Beef eventually decided to say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And of course Etho knew he was lying. That hadn't been something Beef tried to hide, and even if it was, he had faith that Etho could pick up on his lies at this point in the friendship. Yet Etho continued without so much as hinting he had caught on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I thought in line of offering additional services, you might wanna… you might wanna offer note block installations at your store. People that might want special songs at their base or whatever."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef blinked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, that was a fantastic idea. Note blocks were a relatively obscure part of the world, and he'd be hard-pressed to think of a hermit who knew note blocks better than Etho did. Not to mention it fit in perfectly with the theme of the shop. Honestly, he wasn't sure how he didn't think of it sooner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, right. Because he had no clue how to operate note blocks. They both knew that; Etho wouldn't bring him all the way out to his shop just to suggest an idea they both knew he wouldn't be able to accomplish alone. No, Etho wanted to collaborate on this, and Beef had no issue with that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But what kind of friend would he be if he didn't mess with him back after that free glass stunt?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"That's genius. Genius! Great idea,” Beef said. He paused to open the door and shined him his winning smile. "Okay, you can see yourself out now."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And without any hesitation, Etho muttered out an "Okay" and began to walk out of the store, a new heaviness on his shoulders.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef frowned. Did Etho not realize he was joking or was this an escalation of the joke? Either way, letting him leave seemed like a bad idea. That and a part of him—a selfish part of him he chose to ignore—didn’t want him to leave just yet. “Oh, wait, you were proposing that </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, it was just an idea,” left Etho’s mouth in a hurry, his gaze darting everywhere but Beef. Suspicious. “If you wanna hire me… If you’re trying to find someone else, I’m sure your llamas are musically inclined and they’d love to help you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His last sentence cemented his response as a joke, but something felt off about that, as if the faux-demureness was simply an exaggeration of a much realer, much more honest feeling. At first thought, that seemed impossible—Etho had always been a confident person, after all. Not to mention just how amazing he was at everything he did, from his beautiful monstrosity of a base to the genius in his redstone contraptions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But on the other hand, when he didn't succeed…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, Etho said himself just a couple months ago that he was new to messing with note blocks. That was hardly enough time for him to grow comfortable and confident in his skills, and Beef would be damned if he let a friend feel insecure about what he was sure wasn't anything to feel insecure about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yeah, they can, um…" Beef scoured his brain for any sort of rational response. "They can beatbox a lot."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Judging by the resulting chuckles from Etho, that was not a rational response.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef laughed along and took a moment to set his hand on the edge of the piano again, propping himself up against it. “So, how would this work?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Sometime throughout the week, Keralis asked why Etho needed to be in partnership with Beef if he had all the redstone knowledge and had no qualms with grinding for materials. Beef answered with a joke about handling all business, but even he had to admit to himself he had no idea why Etho didn’t set up a shop of his own.)</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <b>4.</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Night in the shopping district was light years away from daytime in the shopping district.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Woah, we actually spent all that time planning,” Beef said, rubbing his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Etho chuckled at that. “Yeah, we did.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now that he was looking at it, people had done a good job of placing their lights in an optimal place for nighttime despite nobody ever planning for it. Storefronts were just barely lit up, and a couple stores were shut down for the night, dark and unwelcoming. The moonlight bounced off the streets back at the night sky it shined down from. Somewhere in the distance, a bee buzzed. All was still.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But now it was time to go home for the day. There was nothing left to do in the shopping district, and Beef would bet they were both tired.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef opened his mouth to excuse himself, but Etho spoke before he could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Beefy Tune of the day, you remember that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef blinked. Etho still wanted to talk? He'd be happy to oblige, but he hadn't quite expected that. "Oh, yeah. I used to do that all the time."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Etho chuckled at that despite the exhaustion wearing down on his shoulders. "What happened to it?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Huh. That was a valid question. There was no reason he stopped. And if Etho liked it enough to ask what happened to it… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I should do it again," Beef said. Then the image of the discs tucked away in various corners of his shop popped into his head. "You know what? Give me one second."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He walked into his store, noting where he had placed every disc. Which one would Etho like? His favorite sold disc was Ward, but there was nothing quite like it. Maybe he should choose something calming. It needed to maintain a good energy throughout the piece though; that was what gave people the drive to keep paying attention rather than tuning it out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh. This one would be perfect.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef pulled the record out from its place behind a cart and returned to Etho, who had opted to wait outside. He held the record out to him. “Here. The Beefy Tune I want you to listen to is kind of old school. It’s by C418—it’s called Blind Spots.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Etho blinked but took the record and gazed down at it. “Blind Spots?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. It’s a kind of old school… soul track thing.” Yeah. That was totally an eloquent description. He didn’t sound like an idiot at all. “From 2013.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Etho fell silent, turning the record over in his hands. It was usually difficult to see any form of overt emotion on his face with the mask and his demeanor in general, but his face was utterly unreadable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something in Beef’s gut twisted. Was that good silence or bad silence? Did he like it? Had he already heard it once? Before he could ask, Etho spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was gonna make a joke about your age, but I—” Etho laughed and looked up when Beef burst out laughing. “I held it in!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was disappointing. Why was that so disappointing?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were all silent,” Beef said, “I was wondering if you already knew it or something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was wrestling my mind, I was like, ‘Should I say it? Should I not?’ I was having a hold-off.” Etho glanced back down at the record again once their laughter faded. “How much does this cost again?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef blinked. “Oh, what? No, I’m not selling this. This music’s for sharing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sharing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. I’ve been listening to this for a while now, and now I’m sharing the music with you. All that’s required is you share it with someone who wants to listen, too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Etho paused, then looked up at him with crinkled eyes and such a fond, adoring gaze Beef wasn’t sure if he was seeing correctly. He huffed out a low chuckle—the kind Beef knew he wouldn’t get out of his head for the next week—and held the disc close to him. “I’ll take good care of it then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was too much—the moonlight cast down on Etho like a spotlight, the warm lights around them, the peacefulness of a night where they knew no danger existed. It was all too much for his poor, confused heart to handle, so he turned away and joked, “You’d better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Over the next few days, Etho was nowhere to be seen. When Beef asked Xisuma if he had heard anything from him, Xisuma had giggled and told him Etho was working on his base with a certain tune always playing when he flew over the jungle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Xisuma had said that like Beef was supposed to understand something. Beef did not.)</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <b>5.</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe planning to link this much redstone to a single pressure plate with the redstone knowledge he had wasn’t such a good idea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef made a face at the red dust coating his hands and the slime stuck in between his fingers. Working with redstone and sticky pistons was far from his favorite thing in the world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t like redstone was foreign to him; while he certainly didn’t consider himself a redstoner, he’d say he had a good amount of knowledge and experience in using it. But setting up the double piston extender for the armour stand had taken so long, in addition to building the music box to begin with. At this point, it’d take ages to build both the stair setup and the music box line. He could do it, but did he really want to do it alone?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well… this was technically Etho’s shop, too, right? Maybe he wasn’t busy right now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef lifted the communicator on his wrist up and typed in a message. Only a couple minutes passed before he received a response to wait by the Nether portal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Some time later, Etho emerged from the shopping district’s Nether portal in a daze. Wool fuzz was wrapped around his fingers, and his hair stuck up in pointy spikes that would be comical had Beef not been so worried.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But before Beef could voice his concerns, Etho met his gaze, visibly brightened, and said, "Hi, Beef!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every bit of tension remaining in his body relaxed at the sound of his voice. Beef couldn't help the grin tugging at his lips as he called, "Hey, Etho!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Beef made a passing remark the next day about it all to Tango, only for Tango to tell him Etho had rejected his proposition to work on the gaming district together in favor of working on his base the whole day. Beef felt a small sense of pride at this, though he wasn't sure why Tango seemed so smug or why Etho had made the decisions he did).</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <b>+1</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef didn’t like to consider himself a gambling man, but losing five diamond blocks playing stat poker probably proved otherwise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t upset by any means; Hypno and Cub had had some extreme stats during their game. But now he was curious. There were so many items Xisuma had obtained from the code for them. Bats killed? Interactions with anvils? What other wacky stuff was there?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You do realize Tango and I built chairs for a reason, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef jumped before he could stop himself, then relaxed upon hearing a familiar laugh. He looked up from the long sheet of paper in his hands and narrowed his eyes at the person who had just walked in. “Warm welcoming there, Etho.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Etho only shrugged and looked around, his eyes falling on the uneven chairs at the poker table. “Did you just wrap up a game?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m assuming you didn’t win.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah.” Etho snickered at that and moved to sit down next to Beef on the bar counter. “Then what’re you doing now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Taking a look through my stats.” Beef stopped to flip the page. “I mean, some of this stuff is pretty ridiculous. You know I’ve opened barrels over a thousand times?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh. You mind if I take a look with you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By all means, that would’ve been a normal question if it wasn’t him and Etho sitting in the stat poker tavern.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But then again, did it really matter? Even if Etho somehow memorized all the numbers, they would’ve changed by the time they played a game of stat poker together. And Beef wasn’t stupid enough to accept another stat poker challenge anytime soon, given both the results of his last poker game and the fact somebody else would know his stats.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure,” Beef said. He continued reading down entry by entry as Etho leaned in closer to him, the length of their arms pressed against each other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Huh. When had Etho gotten this cuddly? Beef knew they were best friends and had shared many a physical contact before, but Etho was close with the other hermits, too. Yet anytime Beef asked anyone else if they were experiencing the same thing, everyone said no. So was this just a—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef stopped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Etho wanted to be close to him, specifically </span>
  <em>
    <span>him.</span>
  </em>
  <span> That was what he had been doing since the season started and what everyone around him had been hinting at. It was so obvious in hindsight; had Beef been blind this entire time?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And why did that make him so happy? Why did </span>
  <em>
    <span>Etho </span>
  </em>
  <span>make him so happy? How did Etho brighten his day with just a smile and make him forget his troubles with a single conversation?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He knew the answer. He had known the answer for a while, and he couldn’t stop the heat rushing to his face and the warmth flooding over him over the thought of Etho feeling that way, too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’re you smiling at?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So he was smiling. He hadn’t even noticed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef couldn’t help but laugh, which only prompted Etho’s mask to rise with his smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Etho chuckled. “I’m scared now. Why’re you laughing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because of you,” tumbled out of his mouth before he could think about it too much. Beef brought an arm around Etho’s shoulders and prompted him closer, his laughter dying away in favor of a smile. “You idiot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That must’ve been the fondest way he had ever said that. What was Etho doing to him?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A second passed before Etho caught onto his train of thought and ducked his head as if that would hide the red blooming on the tips of his ears. “You weren’t supposed to know about that,” he said, laughter bubbling at the edges of his voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, well, you didn’t make it very subtle, did you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess I didn’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef moved his gaze to Etho, tilting his head to the side. He trusted he didn’t need words for this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And he didn’t. Etho hesitated before tucking his head into the crook of Beef’s neck. The tension in his body relaxed when Beef’s gaze dropped down to the papers and he brought it closer to Etho’s field of vision. He let out a content sigh, and Beef couldn’t help but think he looked like a fox curling up on a cozy patch of grass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You triggered one raid but won zero?” Etho mumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beef rolled his eyes as Etho snickered. “Oh, shut up, you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They stayed like that for a while, warm and content.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(They talked properly after that and decided to inform the others of their relationship a month later. Beef would pretend to be mildly offended when everyone admitted they had already known.)</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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